Reputed N.Y. Mob Boss, 12 Others Charged

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, January 21, 2003

The reputed acting boss of the Colombo crime family was charged Wednesday with orchestrating a tangled series of mob killings, including a mistaken hit on a judge in 1987.

Federal prosecutors allege Joel Cacace tried to have former Mafia prosecutor William Aronwald killed for "disrespecting" organized crime. But the two hit men instead killed Aronwald's father, George, an administrative law judge.

"In a tragic twist, they made a horrible mistake," U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said Wednesday.

William Aronwald called the news "bittersweet." Now a defense attorney, he once prosecuted federal mob cases in New York City.

"On the one hand, I'm delighted," the son said. "But to think my father was killed because someone thought he was me, it's very painful."

Cacace, 61, of Deer Park, N.Y., was among 13 alleged organized crime family figures named in a federal indictment. Also named were an alleged Colombo captain, 10 other family associates and a Luchese crime family associate. The Colombo and Luchese organizations are two of New York City's five major Mafia families.

Cacace could get up to 100 years in prison if convicted. He awaited arraignment on murder, racketeering, extortion and other charges. His attorney, Michael Macklowitz, refused to discuss the case.

At the time of the 1987 slaying, the hit men, Vincent and Eddie Carini, were members of a crew led by Cacace, then a Colombo soldier, authorities said.

The brothers mistakenly went to the law office of Aronwald's father, a judge with the city Parking Violations Bureau, then followed him into a laundry near his Queens home and shot him to death, prosecutors said.

The killing remained unsolved until recently, when witnesses identified Cacace as a suspect in that crime and others, Mauskopf said.

"After more than a decade, we have brought to justice the man who carried out this conspiracy," she said.

Organized crime leaders were so angered by the botched hit that Cacace allegedly agreed to have two mobsters from other crime families kill the Carini brothers. The Carinis were found shot to death in 1987 in the back seats of separate cars parked in Brooklyn.

After attending the brothers' funeral, Cacace recruited an associate _ now one of the witnesses against him _ to carry out a hit on their killers, authorities said.

Cacace later married the widow of Eddie Carini. After that marriage ended, she married a police officer, who was killed in 1997.

Investigators had previously identified Cacace as a suspect in the unsolved killing of the patrolman, but he was never charged.